Att planera det nödvändiga projektet: En urbanteoretisk analys av spårvägsprojektet i Lund

This Master’s thesis aims at examining the light rail project in Lund, Sweden, and its discursive and material foundations as well as consequences. Through a discourse analytical deconstruction of the project, the thesis analyses the essence and legitimacy of the political process and its construction of urban visions of the desirable city, for which the building of a light rail system is being portrayed as an absolute necessity. Using a theoretical framework ranging from political science and urban research to social geography and planning theory, the light rail project is framed as a megaproject undertaken within an urban-political discourse of interurban competition and city marketing. Planners and politicians alike construct the visions of an attractive and competitive city built on the precious soil of modernity, sustainability, and economic growth, facilitated by market-oriented policies. Moreover, the analysis shows that the public is largely excluded from the process, with those opposing the project being portrayed as opponents of growth, sustainability, and urban development altogether. The thesis concludes by discussing the local consequences of this hegemonic urban-political discourse, as well as urban policy making in a neoliberal era, towards which antagonism and resistance is being made virtually impossible